Installed a Byrd Shelix Cutterhead in my Ridgid 4330 13" Planer

[jrfuda]

After installing a Spiral cutterhead in my Grizzly G0452 6" jointer about 6 weeks ago I decided I wanted to do the same for my Ridgid 4330 13" Planer. Now, I know, even with a 10% coupon at Holbren, the cutterhead cost as much as the planer did, but it was still the cheapest route to get a spiral cutterhead for me (given that I'd already sunk money into the >2-year-old Planer).

Here's what the cutterhead looked like in the box. First thing I noticed is that the cutter density is significantly lower than that of the cutterhead for my jointer (which I do not think is made by Byrd... maybe Grizzly's house brand). The original cutterhead in the planer was a 3-blade. Counting up the number of cutters on the shelix and the spacing I think it has an equivelant of 2 full-length cutterheads. On my jointer there was about 1/8" between adjacent cutter. On the planer there is the space equivelant to a full cutter. I assume this is becuase the Ridgid has significantly less power than my jointer and becuase the diameter of the cutterhead is also significantly smaller. Bottom line is, the planer cut perfectly after the upgrade, so it does not really matter (and it's so much quieter to boot).

Here it is installed with the dust collection removed. The installation went rather easy. I used a parts diagram to assist me in taking it apart and putting it back to gether in the proper order. I've uploaded the parts diagram under "Charts, guides, software and spec sheets" of the downloads section of the site. There were a few spots that were counterintuitive and I did manage to destroy a bearing (fortuneately the new cutterhead came with new bearings). If you want to do this and learn from my mistakes, send me a PM and we can talk or I can try and be available over the phone if you have issues during your install.

Finally, here it is all together. I also had a Wixery digital planer readout that I got a week or so ago when Amazon had it for a very low price. I'm not complete happy with it and probably still need to tinker with it (for example I installed it to far in to be able to fold up the infeed table completely). Hopefully I'll grow to like it as I use it, if not, it will be easy to replace the stock pointer. As far as the cutterhead goes, I am extremely satisfied. I have 400+ BF of QS red oak I'll be running through it in the coming weeks for a Benchcrafted Roubo and a built-in bookcase (I'm sure I'll have pleanty of wood to spare), so I'll give it a nice workout. Oh, and as a bonus, Byrd sends a cool "Upgraded by Shelix" sticker to stick on your machine...

 

[Willemjm]

Other than having knives sharpened now and then, what is the main advantage?

I have been pondering going this route, but believe one still has to finish sand after planing with the Byrd head.

 

[Jeremy Scuteri]

Other than having knives sharpened now and then, what is the main advantage?

I have been pondering going this route, but believe one still has to finish sand after planing with the Byrd head.

You will still need to sand. For me the biggest advantage is tear out. Lower noise and not replacing dull/nicked blades is a bonus.

 

[jrfuda]

The not sharpening was my biggest motivator, or atleast what got me thinking about it. I somehow got a nicked blade shortly after buying the planer in late 2010 (not sure if it was always there and I just didn't feed anything in that spot or if I did it myself). I knew I had to replace/sharpen the blades and, after seeing the improvement I had with my jointer (which was scalloping) I figured this was the best way to go. I also (on the jointer, not the planer) clogged up my dust collector before (shavings caught in the guard) and have not had that problem since changin heads, so improved dust collection along with the reduced noise I mentioned in my OP are other benefits. I suppose several of the benefits (less blade changing/sharpening, dust collection, noise) don't really impact the finished product but improve the user experience. I think the finished product needs less work to get it ready to finish than it did with my old setup. I'll have to runs some tests to see how a board fresh out of the planer takes finish. Lately I've noticed that I'm over-sanding/scraping my work with diminishing returns. The official party line on the advantages are here: http://www.holbren.com/spiral-cutterhead/

 

[MarkE]

Other than having knives sharpened now and then, what is the main advantage?

I have been pondering going this route, but believe one still has to finish sand after planing with the Byrd head.

The knives on the R4330 are really not made to be sharpened. With the indexing pins in a fixed location, removing material from the blades during sharpening could cause the blades to be too narrow to work correctly. Plus, getting all three blades sharpened to the exact same width might be tough.

 

[jrfuda]

The knives on the R4330 are really not made to be sharpened...

I forgot about that. The blades are reversable too, so I technically had fresh cutting surface left. They're cheap too, less than $30 for a full set of three, so it would have taken many blade changes to "break even" with the price of the shelix, however, the shelix alledgedly will outlast 20+ sets of blades.. probably outlast the machine (either physically or due to upgraditis, more likely the later since I'm just a hobbyist). In the end it's defeinately not saving any money.

 

[Vetteman9956]

I will be really curious to see how this works out for you. I have the same planer and looked into upgrade but in my research, what I mainly found involved the DW735 planer. I read that these small planers are overworked with the Byrd head. The difference seems to be that the byrd head has a cutting surface in contact with the wood at all times where the strait blades are in contact for only a few seconds at a time. It seems to make the difference, and the motors burn out quicker with the segmented head.

 

[ehpoole]

My thoughts: :roll:

1) If you aren't sure whether you like the Wixey DRO, then either you haven't used it yet or it is setup/installed wrong! It is a wonderful accessory for precisely planing multiple pieces to identical thickness -- even if you have to come back a month later to plane additional boards you will know that you are within ~0.005" of the boards you planed a month earlier on the first try! It is also great for precisely matching existing boards when you need to duplicate a part for repairs. It is also great when you know you want to remove 0.185" off an existing board to make things work since it will calculate the relative difference for you (i.e. you do not need to work out 0.750"-0.185"=0.565"=~9/16" +/- 1/64").

2) Scalloping on a Jointer is a sign that the operator is feeding the board too quickly through the Jointer. Slow down the rate of feed and the scalloping will no longer be an issue. It all has to do with how many cuts per inch are being made, which is comprised of three variables: 1) number of knives, 2) cutterhead RPM, and 3) rate of feed -- of which you have full control over the rate of feed. Many people tend to feed boards through a Jointer much too quickly when making light passes because there is no appreciable resistance offered by the Jointer.

3) Brad is right about the Shelix heads tending to overwork the universal motors in "lunchbox" planers. Ordinarily, with straight knives the knife only impacts the wood every 180-degrees (2-knives) or 120-degrees (3 knives), in between cuts the motor is largely unloaded and able to build up momentum to carry the next knife through the cut, which means the motor has time to rest between each cut and build up RPMs. With the Shelix heads the cutterhead is in continuous contact with no opportunity for the motor to develop momentum.

Logically one would assume that the same amount of work is being done therefore there would be no difference. However, during those 120 (or 180) degrees of free-running the motor actually increases in RPMs which has the effect of increasing the air circulation through the universal motor which aids in cooling the motor -- and heat is what kills universal motors. Also, carbide knives/inserts are typically not as sharp as their steel knife counterparts -- they stay "sharp" longer, but they are generally never as sharp as a new set of steel knives -- which means that it takes more force to drive the duller knife/insert through the wood even for the same amount of wood removal.

How much this will affect you, or even if it will appreciably affect you, will depend very much on the sort of work you do and how aggressive you are when planing. Take lighter passes or run the planer at a lower feed rate (for planers with selectable speeds) and you will lighten the load on the motor -- and remember that the maximum safe planing depth is inversely proportional to the width of the board (which is to say, the wider the board the less you should remove per pass).

But most importantly, enjoy your new toys!

Just my $0.02.

 

[jrfuda]

Thanks for the feedback.

I've barely touched the Wixey. I ran one board through just to calibrate it, so I have not really used it much. The biggest issue I have with it is that the only area wide enough to mount it was so close in that I can no longer close my infeed table, and that same surface is also not parallel to cutterhead/motor assembly as it moves, so I had to use extra foam tape to get it so (and it's still not perfect). I probably need to rethink the mounting - maybe mounting it directly to the metal frame instead of the plastic shell (which may invovle cutting away some of the plastic shell). Anyone else who has a 4330 using a Wixey DRO on it?

The scallop marks I had on the jointer persisted through various trouble shooting including slowing my feed to a snails pace. Maybe I had a bad cutterhead to begin with or it was lose and the new head solved that problem and wasn't as much of an improvement as I thought (I did have to use shims - maybe 2 paper thicknesses - to level the cutterhead to the outfeed table where the original cutterhead had none). Or maybe my snails pace was still to fast...

You last comment is very interesting and likely the reason the 36 cutters on the byrd head have are only equivelant to 2/3 of the "cutter area" of the OEM 3-blade cutterhead.

Time will tell.

 

[ehpoole]

The scallop marks I had on the jointer persisted through various trouble shooting including slowing my feed to a snails pace. Maybe I had a bad cutterhead to begin with or it was lose and the new head solved that problem and wasn't as much of an improvement as I thought (I did have to use shims - maybe 2 paper thicknesses - to level the cutterhead to the outfeed table where the original cutterhead had none). Or maybe my snails pace was still to fast...

This is indicative of an entirely different, but related issue. This basically means that one of your 3 (or 2/4) knives was significantly higher than the rest, so was not on the same plane as the other knives. This forces one knife to do most of the work and will result in scalloping unless you go *very* slowly because only one knife will intersect the wood with each full revolution of the cutterhead, which really amplifies scalloping.

Technically, all jointers and planers --even helical models -- cut scallops in the wood, it's just that when all is setup and run as intended the scallops will be so small (or broken up in the case of helical models) that they are no longer obvious to the naked eye. (Sshhh! Don't tell anyone!)

You last comment is very interesting and likely the reason the 36 cutters on the byrd head have are only equivelant to 2/3 of the "cutter area" of the OEM 3-blade cutterhead.

Just to expand. It is ~2/3rds the contact area, but since the wood is advancing at the same speed that 2/3rds must remove the same amount of wood in the same time as the original 3 knives, so the fact that it is 2/3rds means a bigger bite must be taken and offsets any benefit in this respect.

But a lot of the wear-and-tear concern stems from the very real difference in how universal motors behave under load versus the induction motors used in larger equipment. Universal motors slow dramatically under load and at the same time they lose very critical cooling air when they slow -- but give them a moment without a load and they will quickly spin back up to speed, which the period between knives gave them. An induction motor, by comparison, slows very little under normal loading and so is largely unaffected unless severely overloaded.

If one is a light user then one can almost certainly expect many years of service from the benchtop planer provided one does not overload it and takes it easy. But for a heavy user, Shelix heads are a better investment when combined with a larger heavy-duty thicknessing planer which will almost certainly last a lifetime and then some. Life is full of tradeoffs and it is up to each of us how we choose to balance those tradeoffs.

All of which is my $0.02. FWIW, just go and enjoy your new tools, that's what counts most!